Objectives: The aim of this study of patients undergoing cystectomy for invasive transitional cell carcinoma of the bladder was to compare clinical and pathological staging and to review factors that predict survival.
Patients: Sixty-three patients (73% male) underwent radical cystectomy between January 1988 and February 1994. The mean age was 61 years (range 33-77 years).
Results: Of the patients 14% had clinical and 24% pathological stage T1 disease; figures for T2 disease were 24% and 6%, respectively, for T3 disease 46% and 45%, and for T4 disease 16% and 25%. For T1 and T4 disease the clinical stage predicted the pathological stage in over 80% of cases, and for patients with T3 disease the predictive value of clinical staging was 68%; in no patient with clinical stage T2 disease was this confirmed at cystectomy. The prevalence of tumour infiltration of the lymph glands on histological examination of the cystectomy specimen correlated more closely with pathological stage than with clinical stage. For clinical and pathological staging, respectively, the prevalences were 0% and 0%, for T1, 27% and 0% for T2, 20% and 29% for T3, and 40% and 38% for T4. The overall survival rate (life-table method) was 33% at a median follow-up of 42 months in the surviving patients. No patient with tumour infiltration of the lymph glands survived. Survival also correlated more closely with pathological than with histological stage. For clinical and pathological stage T1 disease the 5-year survival rates were 73% and 91%, respectively; for T2 the rates were 27% and 75%, for T3 32% and 31%, and for T4 28% and 29%. The operative mortality rate was 2% and the rate of recurrence of local disease 10%.
Conclusions: Survival after cystectomy correlates more closely with pathological than with clinical stage of disease. The accuracy of clinical staging in T2 disease is poor. Cystectomy is the standard against which other treatments for bladder cancer must be measured.